El Dorado Ranch #4

Tuesday at the Baja.
Last night we had a great meal of Mexican hamburger, (never know exactly what might be ground up in it), baked potatoes and sliced radishes all cooked in our Casita kitchen. This morning we had eggs with Mexican cheese and toast, overlooking the beautiful Sea of Cortez. We had an appointment this morning for our tour of El Dorado with Jim. Turned out Jim was an OK guy and very low key. He filled us in on all the details of what The Ranch was all about, and then we went out for the physical tour. As we all suspected, the land I “won” 17 years ago was completely inaccessible on the side of a mountain. What the deal ended up being was, I got so much credit for my land toward the purchase of one of their parcels of land. As it turns out, this place is booming. Folks from Southern California with hundreds of thousands of equity in their homes, and fed up with the crush of city life, are buying up land in Baja like it’s going out of style. In 1993 the Mexican Constitution was amended to allow foreign ownership of land closer than 30 kilometers to the water or the border. El Dorado Ranch is one of the largest and oldest developments in this part of Baja. The ranch is 250,000+ acres stretching from the Sea of Cortez to the Mountains. They just finished selling 250 condos ranging from $250,000 to $400,000 in 7 weeks. They had a lottery of current land owners, who had the first shot at buying, and sold them all. They are well under construction. We spent from 10:00 to about 2:00 looking at various parcels of land. We were looking for the perfect combination of mountain view, desert view, and Sea view. Anyone who knows Bickie knows how difficult she can be to satisfy (which is one of the reasons I love her). She just kept looking at the map and saying “how about this one”. But working together we found a prime piece of property in one of their older developments that was a perimeter lot (nothing blocking your view of the desert, mountains, or Sea). The price was SIGNIFANTLY below what some of their newer development perimeter lots were selling for. At this writing we are contemplating whether we want to invest in “Some Desert Land in Baja”. (Sounds like an old joke) We tried to get on the Internet today, to send out our previous Emails, do some research, and to contact our CPA friend Phil. The folks at The Ranch office said “just go up to the golf club and you can do it”. We went to the golf club, laptop in hand, and were greeted by a lot of blank stares. The one set of guys told us to check in the pro shop, and the guy in the pro shop, who spoke a little English, told us “we never let customers use the company system for anything”. (Of course there was an Ethernet plug on the wall exactly where we were told to hook up) So back to the Ranch office and they then sent us to the “Little Internet Café” down the road. Of coarse it was open from 07:00 to 3:00 and we got there at 3:18. So no Internet, no research, no deal. Considering this, I think we have raised the motivation of the staff to help us get on the internet. Tomorrow we plan to see if we can find the lot again, and take some pictures. We are seriously considering buying the land strictly for speculation. We looked at lots with inferior orientation and views for $50,000 more than the one we found. Construction costs here are quite reasonable, and they have some interesting construction methods. They use some type of foam system I have seen on Discovery or Home Improvement. Basically it is interlocking foam blocks they stack around rebar and then pump full of concrete. Final result is skim coated with concrete and ends up giving you and R30-35 insulation factor wall. Most of the homes have a lot of ceramic tile in the floors and walls. Also most are built with a roof deck where you can really see the views. Weather here is really desert, has not rained in a year. All the houses use electricity and septic tanks, but water is delivered for about $10.00 a month. They have 3500 gallon cistern that supplies water for the house. The architecture is very Southwest with outdoor verandas and kitchens quite prevalent. One draw back for living here is the road conditions would not be compatible with a Vette. However, one could substitute a hot off road pick up or sand rail with a hot Chevy crate motor. Off roading down here is like a religion. Well that’s it for today. Bickie is out clamming or looking for shells, and I’m working on some nice rib eyes and asparagus we bought yesterday. Bye for now.
Wes and Vickie